California Common

pericles · 12-03-2009, 07:41 PM

I'm putting together a California Common:

Batch Size: 5 Gal
Boil Volume: 2 Gal

1lb Carapils (steep)
1lb Simpsons Crystal (steep)
1lb Dark Malt DME (5 min)
6lbs Golden Malt LMS (5 min)
1oz Cluster Hops (60 min)
1oz Northern Brewer Hops (5 min)

White Labs San Francisco Lager Yeast WLP810

Two questions:

(1) White Labs lists the temperature tolerance of WLP810 as 58-65F. I can keep it probably around a constant 62. Will that continue to produce lager-like characteristics?

(2) The recipe is all but a copy of the Northern Brewer kit inventory which, when I looked around at other recipes, seemed about par for the course. Any suggestions?

**Yooper** · 12-03-2009, 08:00 PM

62 is just fine for that yeast. I like to "lager" it a bit after primary, but it's probably not that important.

I've had several different steam beer recipes, but the one I like the best has a "toasty" character from victory or biscuit malt. If you can buy 1/2 pound of victory, that would bring out some "warm" flavors in the beer. I also like some Munich malt in the grain bill, to give the flavor a little more malt richness.

Here's my current favorite (pretty much ripped off of Jamil):

8 lbs Pale Malt (2 Row) US (2.0 SRM) Grain 74.42 %
1 lbs 4.0 oz Munich Malt (9.0 SRM) Grain 11.63 %
1 lbs Caramel/Crystal Malt - 60L (60.0 SRM) Grain 9.30 %
8.0 oz Victory Malt (25.0 SRM) Grain 4.65 %
0.75 oz Northern Brewer [8.00 %] (60 min) Hops 20.7 IBU
1.50 oz Northern Brewer [8.00 %] (15 min) Hops 18.5 IBU
1.00 oz Northern Brewer [8.00 %] (0 min) (Aroma Hop-Steep) Hops

pericles · 01-05-2010, 05:43 PM

I sometimes check back here on my own recipes, and the dates on which I worked on projects so, for the sake of completeness, here's the recipe I used:

Batch Size: 5 Gal
Boil Volume: 2 Gal

1lb Carapils (steep)
1lb Simpsons Crystal (steep)
1lb Dark Malt DME (5 min)
6lbs Golden Malt LMS (5 min)
1oz Cluster Hops (60 min)
.5oz Centennial Hops (30 min)
1oz Northern Brewer Hops (5 min)

White Labs San Francisco Lager Yeast WLP810

I bottled on January 3, 2010.

Conodor · 01-05-2010, 06:33 PM

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KayaBrew · 01-05-2010, 10:55 PM

Northern Brewer hops are crucial to a Cali Common (if your angling for Anchor Steam) as well as that SF Lager yeast WLP 810...

pericles · 02-27-2010, 04:18 PM

The first batch came out nicely, but the hops were a bit stale. The second batch just got bottled, and it did NOT smell as good. I think I'm going to try Jamil's recipe next.